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Yacht rock icons The Doobie Brothers sail into Houston on new reunion tour

The Doobie Brothers will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on June 29 as part of their 2024 tour.

Photo by Clay Patrick McBride

Classic rock band The Doobie Brothers will come to the Houston area as part of an extensive U.S. tour in summer 2024, playing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands on Sunday, June 30.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will travel to 38 cities across the country, starting in Seattle, Washington on June 15. They'll make a two-city swing through Texas two weeks later, including a stop at Dallas the day before the Woodlands show on Saturday, June 29.

They'll be joined by special guest The Robert Cray Band at both Texas dates. Steve Winwood will be the special guest at various other concerts on the tour.

The classic lineup of Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons, and John McFee - which officially reunited for the Doobie Brothers' 50th anniversary tour for the first time in over 25 years - will be back together again.

The yacht rock band has released 15 albums in their 50+ year career, most recently Liberté in 2021. They also released a new single, “Lahaina,” in 2023. The song, which featured Mick Fleetwood, Jake Shimabukuro, and Henry Kapono, is in support of those affected by the devastating fires in Maui.

Selling nearly 50 million albums worldwide, the Doobie Brothers have had five top-10 singles, 16 top-40 hits, three multi-platinum albums, seven platinum albums, 14 gold albums, and own a rare diamond record for their 1976 album, Best of the Doobies.

Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday, January 23 at 10 am until Thursday, January 25 at 10 pm through the Citi Entertainment program.

The general on sale begins on Friday, January 26 at 10 am at LiveNation.com.

THE DOOBIE BROTHERS: THE 2024 TOUR DATES

Sat., June 15 -Seattle, WA White River Amphitheater
Sun., June 16 - Ridgefield,WA RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater
Tues., June 18 - Bend, OR Hayden Homes Amphitheater
Thurs., June 20 - Wheatland, CA Toyota Amphitheatre
Sat., June 22 - Concord, CA Concord Pavilion
Sun., June 23 - Los Angeles, CA The Kia Forum
Tues., June 25 - San Diego, CA North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Wed., June 26 - Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center
Sat., June 29 - Dallas, TX Dos Equis Pavilion
Sun., June 30 - The Woodlands, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Tues., July 2 - Tulsa, OK BOK Center
Wed., July 3 - Durant, OK Choctaw Casino and Resort
Sat., July 6 - Rogers, AR Walmart AMP
Mon., July 8 - Jacksonville, FL Daily's Place
Wed., July 10 - West Palm Beach, FL iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
Thurs., July 11 - Tampa, FL MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sat., July 13 - Alpharetta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Sun., July 14 - Knoxville, TN Thompson-Boling Arena
Tues., July 30 -Charlotte, NC PNC Music Pavilion
Wed., July 31 -Raleigh, NC Coastal Credit Union Music Park
Sat., August 3 -Camden, NJ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
Sun., August 4 -Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live
Tues., August 6 -Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center
Wed., August 7 -New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Fri., August 9 -Bridgeport, CT Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
Sat., August 10 -Gilford, NH BankNH Pavilion
Mon., August 12 -Mansfield, MA Xfinity Center
Tues., August 13 -Saratoga Springs, NY Broadview Stage at SPAC
Thurs., August 15 -Clarkston, MI Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sat., August 17 - Noblesville, IN Ruoff Music Center
Sun., August 18 -Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
Tues., August 20 -Burgettstown, PA The Pavilion at Star Lake
Thurs., August 22 -Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center
Sat., August 24 -St. Louis, MO Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sun., August 25 - Tinley Park, IL Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
Tues., August 27 -Omaha, NE CHI Health Center
Thurs., August 29 -Denver, CO Ball Arena
Fri., August 30 -Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheater

concerts music

Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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